Day 7

Tonight, as we were using our snowshoes under the stars, I couldn’t help but feel close to Matthew.  It was dark, the stars were shining, and it was peacefully quiet, except for the crunching of our snowshoes as we walked.  But when we stopped, all we could hear was our breathing.  It seemed like not another soul was around.  Except Matthew.

When I want to feel close to Matthew, I go outside.  He loved nature, whether that was with animals, or flowers, or the woods, he loved it all. 

Actually, there wasn’t much he didn’t love about life…that’s probably what makes it so hard to understand why he isn’t here anymore.  He also loved people, children, sports, reading, writing, education, music, movies, plays and food.  It didn’t take much to please him.  He truly enjoyed the simple things in life.

What’s interesting to me about Matthew is that we all have our different stories about him.  It seemed like he had more good friends than I will ever have total in my lifetime.  And they all seem to know him well. That was always mind boggling to me because Matt was a rather shy person.

I learned so much from Matthew, in his life and in his death. Two of the most important things I have learned from him is to be kind to others.  And secondly, to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes so we don’t judge.  He never preached this, but I witnessed him practice it almost every single day of his life.

Matthew had a lot of favorite books, but in a book that he loved, To Kill a Mockingbird, one of his favorite quotes was spoken by the character Atticus Finch:

“You never really understand a person until you consider the things from his point of view…until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”

                                                                                                     -Harper Lee

Today I did the following:

1.    For my physical challenge, I snowshoed 1.2 miles under the stars.

2.   I donated to St Luke’s Mission of Mercy today.  Without judgement, they open their doors to feed and help those who can be helped and comfort those who need comfort.

3.   My act of kindness is one that I have been practicing more often lately--I didn’t judge my students based on their excuses for submitting their work after last night’s deadline. Instead, I accepted their late work and told them that I understood.  Matthew would be proud of me for this. 

https://www.12challenge.org/